One of my new year resolutions this year was to start printing my photos and I’ve done it as described here.

But somewhere in the back of my mind, there was an ambition to make a photo book. And today, after long hours (and days) of selecting, reviewing and putting everything together I’m proud to present the resulting book called “Street Frames”.

It is a collection of my favourite street photos I’ve made since I picked up my first film camera back in 2012. The project I was talking about in my article on Emulsive has also made its way into the book.

Following some good advice from my fellow blogger Yuri, I’m going to use the printed copy as my portfolio and maybe will be able to organize a small exhibition here in my area. For anyone who may also be interested in the book, it’s available through Blurb both in print and PDF.

if fail to do that (marking), you risk developing a clean roll of film

Kodak Tri-X curls as hell

Those are true lessons learned hard way but on the other hand, it was really fun to use Tri-X as you have probably seen here or here. With that said, I’m not rushing to buy another 100 ft roll of any film. Why?

While I was shooting my hand-rolled stock I saw lots of cool films people shoot with and wanted to try them as well. Being kind of bound by the film stock I had I didn’t feel right to buy more, considering the shipment prices and all.

Now when it’s over I want to take a break and try some other stuff and the first batch has already arrived from FilmPhotographyPodcast store (yay!). Hope to share the results from their films soon.

It’s been a long time since I posted a weekly challenge but couldn’t pass this one by.

As my son grows up he starts to appreciate the moments spent with his grandma more and more every time. He knows she lives far from us and she comes twice a year to visit, and he knows she won’t stay long. That’s why almost all the time he wants to spend with her, skipping kindergarten and even being less time with us.

Feeling the importance of this time for both of them, we try not to disturb, and I use this opportunity to document those precious moments.

Several months ago I’ve subscribed to Adobe’s photography package with Lightroom and Photoshop included. At the time the idea of having both magnificent photo tools for only $9.99 a month seemed quite legitimate, but after some time using or should I rather say NOT using this software I faced a dilemma.

As I’m shooting mostly film and hardly ever edit my photos, say nothing about post-processing in Ps, the question I came up with is quite simple: do I really need this software? When I mentioned not using Lightroom and Photoshop I meant not using them to their full potential or at least to some reasonable extent. To be honest, I didn’t care about Photoshop from the beginning, I just accepted the fact it came as a bundle with the tool I really needed or thought I did. Lightroom was my main focus and it is a great product without a doubt.

After working with it for some time I realised that the most useful features for me were cataloging and direct export to my blog or Flickr. All those amazing editing capabilities and stuff most of the time were left aside unless I was working with my rare digital pictures.

To add more fuel to my Lightroom controversy were several articles and blogs on the topic with some alternative suggestions. And while most of the blogs were full of rightful criticism towards Adobe and their products, almost none of them were by film shooters and the alternatives mentioned played into digital yard anyway leaving me wondering.

The last nail in this coffin was Adobe’s announcement of Lightroom CC and Classic CC. I’m sure they have their own sane reasons to do it but for me, it became really hard to justify why I need Lightroom at all as I’m definitely out of Adobe’s focus audience.

For the meantime, it seems I’ll continue using it as I don’t have any alternative in mind and I’m on a one-year commitment plan.

But I’m really curious about what tools film photographers use instead of Lr and Ps. If you’ve got any advice or ideas please do share them in the comments.

Disclaimer: this post is by no means an advertisement but my personal opinion based on the experience.

Nikon F3, Kodak Tri-X 400

This year despite all the challenges and issues I have with my photography, I’ve nevertheless made an important step forward by printing my work. I don’t mean doing it at home, it’s still very unlikely, but I started ordering prints at labs.

First I decided to go with my local photo lab because it’s close and fast. The lab is nothing special to be honest, one big printing machine, photos are done in ten to twenty minutes. No film printing, no manual stuff, nothing. While I was printing my family photos I could tolerate the quality until one day I ordered a bunch of black and white shots from a trip I had. Those were scans of my Kodak Tri-X 400 film rolls and there was no way any colour except for black and white could get through. Alas, when I got them back I saw a yellow tint here and there and then I decided I’d had enough.

Black and white should be printed with black ink and not with a mixture of all inks imitating black. That’s why I turned to a company I had received some test prints from just before this unfortunate story. The company is called WHCC and many of you, especially those from the USA, may know it.

Should I say the quality is miles away from my local lab? I specifically checked if they use black ink and then there was this nice matte paper they recommend for b&w prints. The pictures took their time to get to me, and this is my main concern but it has nothing to do with the company. Israeli post service has never been famous for their speed anyway.

Ordering prints from America to Israel is crazy, right? But I’m ok with crazy. There is a couple of labs in Tel Aviv that offer even printing from film, and maybe someday I’ll give them a try but in the meanwhile, I’ll stick with the guys from WHCC.

Have you ever printed your work there? And what is your experience with them?